Panthers power past Senators for 5th straight win

OTTAWA — The last time the Panthers visited the Canadian Tire Center they were riding on two flats.

Peter Horachek had just replaced fired coach Kevin Dineen. Two minutes into his first game behind the bench on Nov. 9, his team trailed 2-0.

"Holy cow, I looked up there and said, 'This can't be true,'" Horachek said Thursday. "It's a nightmare right now. I'm trying to wake up from that one."

Horachek will sleep easier after Thursday's return to the scene of that inglorious debut. A power-play goal by Tom Gilbert with 2 1/2 minutes remaining broke a tie and Tomas Kopecky's shorthanded goal sealed a 4-2 victory over the Senators.

It extended the Panthers' winning streak to five games — the third on this Canadian trip — their longest since March 2012 and their seventh win in eight games.

"It's contagious when you're winning. We started off the year obviously not the way we wanted to, but it just keeps buliding for us. We've got this feeling. We know what works now and it's given us a great chance every night," said Gilbert, who also assisted on an earlier goal.

The defenseman took a cross-ice pass from Tomas Fleischmann and drilled it past Panthers nemesis Craig Anderson on the short side for his second goal of the season.

"Just a great pass," Gilbert said of the feed from Fleischmann, who found him creeping into the left circle. "I think what happened, they had two guys in front of the net. I think that just took a lot of focus away from some of the guys."

The win was a rarity in this chamber of horrors, a source of considerable anguish for the Panthers. They hadn't won here since Jan. 9, 2010.

There were some tense moments remaining as Mike Weaver was whistled for tripping soon after the go-ahead goal. But Kopecky stole the puck and removed all doubt on a breakaway with the Panthers' first shorthanded goal of the season — every other team but Phoenix had scored at least one.

Scott Clemmensen stopped 32 shots for his fourth win in four starts filling in for injured Tim Thomas, who is eligible to come off injured list for Friday's finale of the four-game trip at Winnipeg. Horachek said Thomas is close in his recovery from a groin injury but that the veteran might be given extra time until the Panthers return home Monday against Tampa Bay.

"He's done a great job," Horachek said of Clemmensen. "He's been rock-solid for us. He made the saves he needs to make and he keeps us in the games. Now that he's played some games it looks like his timing is there and he feels pretty comfortable. That first game stepping in it looked like he was a little rusty."

Clemmensen saw the most pressure he's faced on the trip. Five weeks after the rocky start to the Horachek era, the host Senators were cast as Team Turmoil. After getting chewed out by their general manager and lambasted by their coach following a lackluster loss Wednesday at New Jersey, the Senators had the motivation to overcome any fatigue from the night before.

If the result had gone the other way, Horachek's dreams would have been haunted by a controversial goal midway through the first period that was at first disallowed by officials on the ice but allowed by the replay crew in Toronto.

Clemmensen stopped Clarke MacArthur's shot from the top of the left circle but the rebound deflected off Chris Neil's skate into the net.

The ruling was that Neil was trying to stop and didn't make a kicking motion. The Panthers had a goal taken away from Brad Boyes in similar circumstances Sunday in Montreal.

"I was trying to whack it in with my stick," Neil said. "It hits my skate and goes in. I'll take it."

"It looked like to me he opened up his foot [outward.] You don't open up your foot to stop that way," Horachek said. "That's the way I initially saw it. The referees do a pretty good job of making the right decisions. Upstairs made the decision — or Toronto did."

Senators captain Jason Spezza put Ottawa ahead with 29 seconds remaining in the period on a highlight-reel move, dancing around and all but disrobing rookie defenseman Dylan Olsen during a power play.

The Panthers tied it with slick teamwork late in the second period when Gilbert wristed a flying-saucer pass to Alexsander Barkov, who was camped in front of the net. Barkov deflected it in with the blade of his stick for his sixth goal, just as they practice it at the end of every workout.

"Guys just want to go to the net. That's what we've been kind 0f preaching: Just keep it simple, get bodies to the net, get pucks there and good things will happen," Gilbert said.

The Panthers scored first for the third time on the trip 5 1/2 minutes in as Shawn Matthias set up Jimmy Hayes with a beauty of a centering pass. Matthias grabbed a loose puck that deflected off Krys Barch's stick and streaked down the left wing. Hayes beat Anderson low on the left side for his fourth goal since coming in the trade with the Blackhawks for Kris Versteeg.